Just a rant to get off my chest the bad day I'm having....
First off I ordered a Lee 429-240-2R mold from Midway that wouldn't line up correctly without squeezing the mold handles quite tightly.(enough to have to bend the handles together a little.) I should've sent the mold right back to Midway as my gut instinct told me, but I figured I could make do with a little extra pressure while casting...I'm a big guy and figured no big deal...the mold would line up correctly.
Went through all the proper cleaning and lubricating steps, smoked the mold and out to the garage I went.
I then fired up my Lee ProIV furnace and when the lead was up to temp, the bottom pour spout took an extremely long time to clear so the lead would flow.
The lead eventually got hot enough to clear the bottom spout and I started casting......or rather I tried to start casting. At least 50 casts into it I still wasn't getting proper fill out, and the mold was getting worse trying to close properly.
I let it cool off, brought it back into the house and re cleaned it, sparingly lubed it; as not to get lube into the cavities, and re-smoked it.
Meanwhile I took out an RCBS mold for the 44 and cast perfect boolits by the 3rd or 4th cast.
Back to the Lee mold and 50 more casts and no luck
I know Midway wont let me return the mold as it has been used, so my only chance left is the Lee guarantee.
I use a lot of Lee products including just about every Ranchdog mold made, but in the case of Ranchdog; Michael carefully goes over all the molds made by Lee for proper sizing, and quality, before he will sell them to his customers.
And as far as the furnace goes; I seem to be having temp control issues with that.....the temp is not maintaining, and that is why the spigot was clogging up.
I love Lee dies, but I really believe that when it comes to casting with Lee products "You gets what ya pays for!" Their quality control is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully Lee will make good on the bad mold, and I'll be buying a new furnace shortly...any suggestions BESIDES Lee?
Sorry about the rant and thanks,
johnny